TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The House of Representatives' (DPR) legal commission proved last week that legislators had little or no intention to support corruption eradication efforts. While the public waits for the DPR to approve the selection of new Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) leaders with integrity and conscience, legislators continue to delay the final process.
The reason given for the postponement of the KPK candidate leaders' fit and proper test makes no sense. A number of legislators, for example, devote their time to finding fault with the selection process, such as citing the incomplete documents submitted. Their most recent gripe has been the absence of a representative from the Attorney-General's Office (AGO) among the eight names submitted by President Joko Widodo last September.
Despite the time constraint, the DPR persists in finding faults or reasons to delay approving the candidates. There is no requirement for a prosecutor to be among the KPK leadership. This is clearly stated in Article 29 of Law No. 30/2002 on the KPK. Anyone can be selected as leaders of the anti-graft organization so long as the candidate has the competence and a clean background.
One way to check their backgrounds and competence is to carry out a fit and proper test. Doubts over the candidates' capability to lead with the excuse that some of the candidates lack academic credentials and minimum experience in the areas of law, economics, finance and banking can be proven by questioning them. That is the main objective of the fit and proper test.
Conversely, by relying on the timetable of this procedure, verifying the candidates' credibility cannot be achieved optimally. It must be remembered that only one month is left for the completion of the process. Article 30, Chapter 10 of the Law on the KPK states that the DPR must approve the candidates, at the latest, three months after the list of names has been sent to them. There is no reason for the DPR to return the names back to the President. By December 16, the date of the deadline, the KPK leaders must be in place because the assignment of the remaining leaders Adnan Pandu Praja Zulkarnain will have ended. If this happens, the KPK will become even weaker because we cannot rely totally on the ad hoc chairmen Taufiequrachman Ruki and Indriyanto Seno Adji.
In such a vacuum, major corruption cases currently being processed would stop midway. The long drawn-out selection process will also deter good people from applying to join the KPK in the future. The only party to profit by such a situation would be the corruptors and questionable businessmen.
Long debates in the legislature need not take place if the legislators from the start really intend to fortify the KPK. Unfortunately, this does not appear to be the case among the Senayan politicians. We strongly suspect that they really do not want a strong KPK and have never wanted it since it was established 12 years ago, given that 82 politicians have been nabbed by this anti-graft organization.
Unsurprisingly, we see Senayan politicians time and again set out to weaken the KPK. The DPR, for example, has tried to alter the KPK law by getting rid of its authority to conduct wiretaps and to prosecute.
President Joko Widodo need not feel discouraged by the tactics of certain lawmakers in the DPR. If the tug and pull over the selection of KPK leaders lead to negotiating on which parts of the KPK law go into legislating national priorities in 2016, he must firmly reject any such moves. Jokowi must also support the nine women he appointed to be in the KPK leaders selection committee, whose integrity is now being questioned by DPR politicians. (*)
